Whole Truth Coalition

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Looks like today the British workers outside the Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire have been twinned with the striking workers at the shipyards at Gdansk in 1980: and for any worker, there could be no greater honour.

Gdansk was the moment when Polish workers stood against the Soviet empire and said there would be no more submission: ‘On our knees before God, but on our own two feet before all men.’

Their strike spread across Poland, and cracked the power of the quislings in Warsaw who did Moscow’s work. The strike was the beginning of the end of the Soviet empire.

Today the strike in Lincolnshire has spread across Britain to contractors at the nuclear power plants Sellafield and Heysham, to Grangemough oil refinery and power stations at Longanet, Warrington and Staythorpe, to contractors at the South Hook LNG terminal in Milford Haven, and to Croyton oil refinery in Essex.

Thousands have gone out. The strikes have gone wild cat.

And all of it is right. For what else can British workers do when their own parliament has turned over the power to control Britains’ borders and Britain’s labour laws to the Brussels empire?

There is no point in saying, ‘The workers must obey the laws that govern employment.’ The laws which now govern employment in this country are no longer legitimate. They are no longer the laws drawn up by British democracy.

They are the laws drawn up by the European Commission. They are laws to which a generation of Britain’s politicians have signed up, giving away powers they had no right to give away.

Britain’s politicians signed up to these laws in Treaties most of them have never read, and if they did read them, they didn’t believe every ‘Europe without frontiers’ clause would be enforced.

Well, surprise: the rootless cosmopolitan euro-zealots all over the Continent (though mostly in France) and the career eurocrats in Brussels (mostly led by the French) who wrote the European treaties put this stuff in because they meant to see it enforced.

But just listen to the whining of Peter Hain, the former work and pensions secretary who was part of Tony Blair’s EU-pandering government, at the weekend. He told one paper that he thought something had gone ‘badly wrong’ with the way EU legislation was being enforced.

What he means is it is actually being enforced. The only thing that is ‘badly wrong’ is that Britain should ever have agreed to it in the first place.

The Daily Mail

When Gordon Brown brought Peter Mandelson home from Brussels three months ago and appointed him Business Secretary, the move was hailed as a masterstroke.

But as the recession deepens, the Prime Minister must surely be starting to regret the presence of this ocean-going, chateau-bottled, 24-carat Euro-fanatic at the helm of British industrial policy.

Yesterday this unelected peer surpassed even himself by coming forward with the strong hint that British workers protesting outside the Total oil refinery on Humberside ought to look for jobs abroad.

‘UK companies can operate in Europe’, intoned His Lordship, ‘and European companies can operate here.’

Caroline Flint, Minister for Europe, was even less subtle. ‘It is important to remember’, she declared, ‘that open European Labour markets also allow British firms and workers to take advantage of contracts and opportunities elsewhere in the EU.’

At least Miss Flint and Lord Mandelson deserve to be commended for their brutal honesty. They genuinely believe in the free market across Europe. They are therefore frank enough to boast that there is no such a thing as a British job - only European jobs. But Mandelson, who as a member of the Lords has no constituents to keep his feet on the ground, is terribly out of touch.

He is one of the most gilded members of the European elite. For him moving across European borders is therefore a matter of first- class travel, Mediterranean yachts, five- star hotels, huge salaries and lavish expense accounts.

It’s a different story altogether if an unemployed oil worker from Humberside goes to Europe in search of a job - as Mandelson suggests he should. He finds himself living in squalid accommodation in a country he doesn’t know, where people speak a language he doesn’t understand.

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Excessive exposure makes a child materialistic, which in turn affects their relationship with their parents and their health.

That is one of the conclusions of a new wide-ranging survey into British childhood, produced for the Children’s Society.

It says that children are part of a new form of consumerism, with under 16 year-olds spending £3 billion of their own money each year on clothes, snacks, music, video games and magazines.

The report claims that some advertisers “explicitly exploit the mechanism of peer pressure, while painting parents as buffoons” and that in its most extreme form, advertising persuades children that “you are what you own”.

In addition the “constant exposure” to celebrities through, TV soaps, dramas and chat shows is having a detrimental effect.

It says: “Children today know in intimate detail the lives of celebrities who are richer than they will ever be, and mostly better-looking. This exposure inevitably raises aspirations and reduces self-esteem.”

It adds the way celebrities are portrayed “automatically encourages the excessive pursuit of wealth and beauty.”

This “media-driven consumerism” is having a negative effect on a child’s wellbeing, the report says.

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Professor Stiglitz, the former chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told The Daily Telegraph that Britain should let the banks default on their vast foreign operations and start afresh with new set of healthy banks.

“The UK has been hit hard because the banks took on enormously large liabilities in foreign currencies. Should the British taxpayers have to lower their standard of living for 20 years to pay off mistakes that benefited a small elite?” he said.

“There is an argument for letting the banks go bust. It may cause turmoil but it will be a cheaper way to deal with this in the end. The British Parliament never offered a blanket guarantee for all liabilities and derivative positions of these banks,” he said.

Mr Stiglitz said the Government should underwrite all deposits to protect the UK’s domestic credit system and safeguard money markets that lubricate lending. It should use the skeletons of the old banks to build a healthier structure.

“The new banks will be more credible once they no longer have these liabilities on their back.”

Mr Stiglitz said the City of London would survive the shock of such a default because it would uphold the principle of free market responsibility. “Counter-parties entered into voluntary agreements with the banks and they must accept the consequences,” he said.

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‘Armed police are stopping drivers in Kettering this afternoon in a traffic check point. Drivers were being pulled over on the A43 northern bypass near Telford Way industrial estate in a check for motoring offences such as driving without insurance.

The check point would not usually have been manned by armed police officers but Northamptonshire Police used the operation as a training exercise for the firearms team.’

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‘In my post today, I received an NHS marked envelope - inside were “invitations” to join a “National Medical research project” run by BioBank. There was a bar code at the top of the letter with the words ‘participant ID’ next to it, and my appointment has been set for 5th March 2009 1.20pm. If I do not wish to participate, then I am to notify them in writing, and give reasons.

I am timetabled to take part in a 90min examination in which genetic material including blood, urine, are taken and various ‘medical tests’ performed etc. Lifestyle questions will also be asked. Their stated aim is to research into the prevention of cancer, heart disease, strokes etc. Apparently it involves over 500,00 people aged between 40-69. (I’m nearer the 40 than the 69 by the way).

There are huge implications to people holding DNA / gene info, and I am not confident that ethical issues would be understood, let alone taken care of.’

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Leadership training charity Common Purpose has been reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office for alleged breaches of data protection law.

The Northwest Regional Development Agency, which made the complaint, has also apologised to a person whose name it inadvertently passed on to Common Purpose after he made a request under the Freedom of Information Act about its dealings with the charity.

The name was then included by Common Purpose in a list of previous FOI requests about the charity that it distributed to public authorities receiving new requests. The charity said it distributed the list to illustrate the high number of FOI requests being made about it and to help authorities decide whether to treat new requests as vexatious (6 August 2008, page 3).

Some of the FOI requests come from people concerned that too much public money is being spent on Common Purpose courses for officials.

The agency has written to Common Purpose to say it intended to inform the ICO about the list. The letter reads: “If you decide to disclose the list to third parties, then please do so only with the prior express written consent of any individuals who are named or otherwise identified.”

A spokeswoman for Common Purpose said advice from its solicitors and the ICO indicated it was not in breach of the Data Protection Act.

The Third Sector

‘Couples who have more than two children are being “irresponsible” by creating an unbearable burden on the environment, the government’s green adviser has warned.

Jonathon Porritt, who chairs the government’s Sustainable Development Commission, says curbing population growth through contraception and abortion must be at the heart of policies to fight global warming. He says political leaders and green campaigners should stop dodging the issue of environmental harm caused by an expanding population.’

Read more…

Wacky Jacqui Smith continues to believe her own increasingly insane press releases on ID cards. Yesterday she told the people of Manchester that they might be lucky enough to get their hands on ID cards earlier than the rest of the country.

The Home Office is looking for “beacon areas” to further trial the cards from autumn this year. The tech is already on trial at two airports - despite the protests from Balpa - and foreign residents have been guinea-pigging the cards since late last year.

Wacky Jacqui, with the help of the BBC, claimed in November that “people can’t wait for ID cards”. Talking about general availability of cards in 2012 she said: “I regularly have people coming up to me and saying they don’t want to wait that long.”

Our Jacqui visited pupils at a school in Wythenshawe, and: “Together they discussed how identity cards will help young people strike out on their own by opening their first bank account, renting their first flat, or perhaps travelling to Europe for the first time.” The lovely Home Secretary and the shell-suited scrotes of southern Manchester - a heartwarming image for a Friday morning.

She said the scales were falling from people’s eyes as they saw the “real benefits for citizens… That is why we have brought forward our plans and this year will begin offering identity cards on a voluntary basis, giving British nationals the chance to access the benefits of identity cards as soon as possible.”

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The decision of the BBC to refuse to broadcast a humanitarian appeal for the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) made of up British NGOs working in the Gaza Strip to help the wounded and homeless of Gaza is one of the most craven acts of political and legal cowardice in the history of British television broadcasting.

In all my years as General Secretary of War on Want, as Chairman of the International Broadcasting Trust, as Patron of the One World Broadcasting Trust, and as a member of the previous Educational Advisory Committee of the Independent Broadcasting Authority, I never came across such a huge political misjudgement as that made by Mark Thompson, the Director General of the BBC. He must resign or the damage to the Corporation will be cumulative and global.

During the Thatcher years when War on Want was in a constant battle with the Charity Commission on politics and charity law there was no parallel to this.

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The Wicker Man is set on fire to pay tribute to the gods. The sacrifice of the humans inside is part of a religious ritual to increase fertility, crops, commerce, or merely to re-ignite the chances that bad times will disappear.

According to Julius Caesar in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico (Commentary on the Gallic Wars), the Wicker Man was a large wicker statue of a human used by the ancient Druids (priests of Celtic paganism) for human sacrifice by burning it in effigy. Other records talk of people being placed inside.

Despite any debunking of Caesar’s accounts by modern skeptics, the imagery of the burning of the Wicker Man lives on and its use cannot be denied in modern neo-pagan rituals. Whether the Wicker Man exists in historic Pagan accounts, in modern neo-Pagan events (such as at Nevada’s Burning Man), or in movies and contemporary events, the symbolism is very real and powerful.

And quite obvious.

For those interested in deciphering the unfolding of the sacrifices (including murder-suicides and costumed violence of late) during these difficult times, please pay attention to these signs, noticed already by those to whom the twilight language is being directed.

As I already have mentioned in these pages, it goes beyond coincidence to find the moniker of the Wicker turning up during incidents from the Son of Sam killings to last year’s Chicago area “Phantom Clown” sightings and near-abductions of children. Keep your eyes open.

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Iceland will be put on a fast track to joining the European Union to rescue the small Arctic state from financial collapse amid rising expectations that it will apply for membership within months, senior policy-makers in Brussels and Reykjavik have told the Guardian.

The European commission is preparing itself for a membership bid, depending on the outcome of a snap general election expected in May. An application would be viewed very favourably in Brussels and the negotiations, which normally take many years, would be fast-forwarded to make Iceland the EU’s 29th member in record time, probably in 2011.

Olli Rehn, the European commissioner in charge of enlargement, said: “The EU prefers two countries joining at the same time rather than individually. If Iceland applies shortly and the negotiations are rapid, Croatia and Iceland could join the EU in parallel. On Iceland, I hope I will be busier. It is one of the oldest democracies in the world and its strategic and economic positions would be an asset to the EU.”

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The hollowness of Gordon Brown’s pledge to create ‘British jobs for British workers’ was exposed tonight as wildcat strikes spread across Britain in protest at the use of foreign labour.

Since the Prime Minister made his promise in September 2007, the number of migrants employed has risen sharply while the number of Britons has dropped.

The Government’s own statistics show that, in the 12 months after Mr Brown’s speech, the number of foreign workers rose by 175,000 as the number of British in work fell by 46,000.

It is this continuing trend that many union leaders believe sparked today’s wave of sympathy strikes which caught up to 17 refineries and power plants all over Britain by surprise.

With no sign of peace last night, the protests by 4,000 English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish workers raised fears that the country could be gripped by months of increasingly bitter strike action

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